Digital Native Wiki
Welcome to the Digital Native Wiki A Digital Native is someone who has grown up with technology and depends on its convenience. This Wiki discusses how Digital Natives use technology to develop relationships and seek opportunities that they otherwise would not have access to without the internet. How the Digital Native came to be As more and more personal computers went on the market, home computing increased in popularity. In the early 1980s, having a personal computer became relatively common. With the rise of the Internet, the technology became faster and easier to use over the next two decades and by the year 2000, there were over 200 million host computers. A census taken by the U.S. Census Bureau calculated that whereas 0 percent of Americans had the Internet at home in 1984, by 2010, 80 percent of Americans had home Internet access. In today's society, it is common for someone to have a cellphone and it is becoming even more popular to own a smartphone, a mobile cellular device that can connect with the internet and function as a computer. In fact, a study by The Pew Research Center done in January of 2014, found that 90 percent of American Adults have a cellphone and 58 percent have a smartphone. This growing dependency on technology has shaped our culture, making online communication overwhelmingly popular through social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The Digital Natives are those that were born in the technological era and have grown up with technology, usually referred to as those born after 1990 and on. Digital Natives are used to receiving information fast and are accustomed to constant multi-tasking. A study done by the Kaiser Family Foundation in January 2010, found that those 8 to 18 years of age spend about seven and a half hours a day using technology, and because of their advanced multi-tasking skills online, they manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes worth of media content into those seven and half hours. They also spend a half hour texting and another half hour talking on the phone per day. Digital Natives are using technology to connect with their friends, significant others, family and co-workers. It is typical for a Digital Native to have about 300 "friends" on Facebook and 79 "followers" on Twitter. In Section 2, I will discuss how the Digital Native presents him/herself online. How the Digital Native presents him/herself online A social network is a site that allows its users to connect with one another by posting comments, messages, photos, videos and other content. The most popular of the social networks are Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. In January 2013, NPR talked to a room full of teens (Digital Natives) to see how each social network is used, and this is what they said: Facebook is primarily used for finding old friends and arranging events. Twitter is often used for their personal expression. Instagram is for posting pictures and occasionally video and Vine is for posting video. The teens also said that Snapchat is for selfies (a picture of him/herself) that they don't want to haunt them later (the app only makes the picture available for up to ten seconds). The Pew Research Center performed a study in May 2013 to explain how teens are presenting themselves on these social networks. The study found that 91 percent will post a photo of themselves on any given social netowork. 71 percent put their school name and 71 percent also include what city they live in. 53 percent put their email address and 20 percent post their cell phone number. In additon to these findings, they also concluded that 92 percent of those teens are putting there real name. 84 percent put their interest. 82 percent post their birth dates, 62 percent put their relationship status and 24 percent post videos. Business Insider's report in 2014, calculated which networks had the most engagement. Their report found that 50.7 percent of PC-Smartphone users are attracted to Facebook, 13.5 percent to Instagram, 7.4 percent to Twitter, 6.6 percent to Snapchat and 4.6 percent to WhatsApp. Social media was the most attractive thing to these same users. The report said Americans spend an average of 37 minutes a day on social media, higher than any other activity. The Good vs. Bad of Online Communication Kaveri Subrahmanyam and Patricia Greenfield's study Online Communication and Adolescent Relationships explains how Digital Natives form relationships online. They have found that young adults are using online communication to reinforce relationships, both with friends and significant others. The study found that most online interactions by Digital Natives were with peers from their offline lives. It also revealed that online communication gave users the ability to talk to love interests more easily. A 2001 study by Pew Internet and American Life Project said that 48 percent of online teens believe that the internet has improved their relationships with friends. Digital Natives use social networking to seek out romantic relationships. The sites allow their users to see each other's interests, ages, mutual friends and pictures to often help them decide whether or not to pursue their romantic feelings. Although social networks can be used for good, such as relieving social anxiety, it can also lead to bad situations like cyber bullying and sexual predation. Social Networks have privacy capabilities, allowing their users to make their profiles visible only by friends or followers. But, online harassment is usually done by the users own friends or followers and in some cases it can be anonymous. Online chat rooms are a popular outlet for cyber bullying. In the study by Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, they determined that in an unmonitored chat room, there is a 59 percent chance of receiving racial or ethnic slurs. The study also found that the more interaction users had with strangers, the more at risk they were for sexual predation and harassment. These attacks can lead to emotional distress, depressive symptoms and even offline victimization. The National Crime Prevention Council lists several reasons why cyber bullying needs to be prevented: *It occurs in the child's home. Being bullied at home can take away the place children feel most safe. *It can be harsher. Often kids say things online that they wouldn't say in person, mainly because they can't see the other person's reaction. *It can be far reaching. Kids can send emails making fun of someone to their entire class or school with a few clicks, or post them on a website for the whole world to see. *It can be anonymous. Cyberbullies often hide behind screen names and email addresses that don't identify who they are. Not knowing who is responsible for bullying messages can add to a victim's insecurity. *It may seem inescapable. It may seem easy to get away from a cyberbully by just getting offline, but for some kids not going online takes away one of the major places they socialize. There are many efforts by state governments to stop bullying both on and offline. The National Conference of State Legislatures has devised a list of every state's anti cyber-bullying laws. You can view every state's efforts here. There are several preventative measures that parents can take to stop cyber bullying as well. The organization STOP Cyberbullying states that educating kids about the consequences of cyber bullying can help prevent it and that parents and teachers need to be trusted by children so that if something is happening online, they have a someone to turn to. The Future of the Digital Native Though there are postive and negative outcomes of online communication, it is clear that social networks will only become more popular. As the generations of Digital Natives progress, there are bound to be technological advances making it even easier to connect with a vast amount of people across the globe. Businesses will be able to reach out to customers more personally, by tracking their locations, online interactions and search histories. Social media is also driving technological innovation with inventions like Google Glass and web access in cars, people will be constantly connected. Within a few decades, the Digital Native will have taken over and the technological possibilities are endless. References Pool, Ithiel De Sola. "A Shadow Darkens." Technologies of Freedom. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1983. 1-10. Print. Prensky, Marc. "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants." On the Horizon. Vol. 9. No. 5: MCB UP, 2001. N. pag. Print. Schulte, Stephanie Ricker. "Introduction." Cached: Decoding the Internet in Global Popular Culture. New York: New York UP, 2013. 1-19. Print. The Kaiser Family Foundation, comp. Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds. Publication. N.p.: Federal Communications Commission, 2010. Print. Graham, Trey. "Teens Find The Right Tools For Their Social-Media Jobs."NPR. NPR, 17 June 2013. Web. 16 June 2014. . "Mobile Technology Fact Sheet." Pew Research Centers Internet American Life Project RSS. The Pew Research Center, 2001. Web. 13 June 2014. . Madden, Mary, Amanda Lenhart, Sandra Cortesi, Urs Gasser, Maeve Duggan, Aaron Smith, and Meredith Beaton. "Teens, Social Media, and Privacy." Pew Research Centers Internet American Life Project RSS. The Pew Research Center, 21 May 2013. Web. 14 June 2014. . Adler, Emily. "Social Media Engagement: The Surprising Facts About How Much Time People Spend On The Major Social Networks." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 05 Jan. 2014. Web. 16 June 2014. . Greenfield, Patricia. "Online Communication and Adolescent Relationships."Children and Electronic Media. By Kaveri Subrahmanyam. Vol. 18. Princeton, NJ: Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton U, 2008. 119-46. Print. Lenhart, Amanda, Oliver Lewis, and Lee Rainie. "Teenage Life Online." Pew Research Centers Internet American Life Project RSS. The Pew Research Center, 21 June 2001. Web. 16 June 2014. . "What Is Cyberbullying?" National Crime Prevention Council. National Crime Prevention Council, n.d. Web. 15 June 2014. . "STOP Cyberbullying: Preventing Cyberbullying." STOP Cyberbullying: Preventing Cyberbullying. STOP Cyberbullying, n.d. Web. 16 June 2014. . "Cyberbullying and the States." Cyberbullying and the States. National Conference of State Legislatures, 9 July 2010. Web. 16 June 2014. . Marentis, Chris. "5 Predictions for the Future of Social Media." 5 Predictions for the Future of Social Media. IMedia Connection, 12 May 2014. Web. 16 June 2014. . "Technology in 2019 - What the Future of Tech Looks like." YouTube. YouTube, 11 Mar. 2013. Web. 16 June 2014. . Category:Browse